Junior Chris Robbins won the Division III wrestling championship at 170 lbs. during Saturday’s state meet at Bow High School, headlining four ConVal wrestlers who qualified for the Meet of Champions on the day.

Robbins, who made it all the way to New Englands as a freshman two years ago, was on a collision course with Matt Cleary in the title match; Cleary should sound familiar to ConVal wrestling fans, as he’s the son of Randy Cleary, a 100-match winner for ConVal in the 1980s under Brian Whittemore. The elder Cleary now coaches Plymouth, and son Matt; he was named Division III Coach of the Year on Saturday.

“It’s fun to see the legacies live on,” ConVal head coach Abe Ewing said. 

Robbins had beaten Matt Cleary in the regular season, and Ewing predicted that the Bobcat would change his strategy for the state meet. 

“We weren’t sure what Cleary would have up his sleeve,” Ewing said, “and so we decided to practice what we were good at already.”

Cleary came out on the offensive more aggressively than their previous bout, and Robbins capitalized, taking him down immediately, turning him for back points and then stepping over for a pin in 1:15.

“Chris is one of the most intelligent wrestlers I’ve ever coached,” Ewing said. “He is so patient and willing to outdistance a guy to stay in good position that he is just a lot of fun to coach.”

Robbins will enter a tough bracket at 170 lbs. at the Meet of Champions Saturday morning at Londonderry, with the likes of Division II champion Matthew Ha of Bishop Guertin, Keene’s Austin Morris and DI champ Jack McKiernan of Pinkerton standing between him and another New England championship berth. 

“The fun thing about Chris, Chris is a gamer,” Ewing said. “When it’s overtime, Chris is the guy you want. When the chips are on the line, you can’t count Chris out.”

Robbins was the only individual champion Saturday, but three other Cougars will join him at the MOCs.

Senior heavyweight Trace Borozinski finished second at 285 lbs., getting the tough match he expected in the final round from Raymond’s Hayden Robinson. Borozinski got to the finals by pinning Lebanon’s Chris Kinne in just 10 seconds, the result of four years’ worth of hard work. The aggressive approach wasn’t the game plan going in, but you can’t argue with the results.

“It’s never a problem when you get the pin in 10,” Ewing said.

Senior Cam Jordan lost his first bout at 132 lbs. to Campbell’s Chris Corbett, but battled all the way back through the consolation bracket, winning twice and beating 2020 state champion Anson Ritondo of Newport with a lateral drop to earn a trip to the Meet of Champions.  

“It was the most beautiful lat drop I’ve ever seen,” Ewing said. 

Senior Max Vassar was the surprise of the day, as he also lost his first bout and then wrestled through the consolation bracket to take third.

“We knew Max was tough,” Ewing said, “but no one else knew Max was tough – but he finally put it all together.”

A few other Cougars came close to their desired top-three finishes. Tyler Sullivan was fourth at 152 lbs.; CJ Tillman got a consolation-round pinfall at 145 lbs.; Aiden Brissette delighted the crowd with a comeback pin and underdog victory after going down 8-1 at 160 lbs., and Kast Chek got a pinfall win in the consolation bracket at 182 lbs. 

“That kid works hard, and he was in every match,” Ewing said. “He should do some cool things down the road.”